The spike was seen around the same time when layoffs were steaming the ecosystem and the funding crunch was leading to forceful shutdowns, bringing in a reality-check.Sanghamitra Kar | ET Bureau | March 28, 2017, 10:30 IST

BENGALURU: "My friend just got fired yesterday. I don't know if I'll be next? What should I do?" These were the words of a 26-year-old employee working with a food-tech startup in Bengaluru, seeking advice from YourDOST.

This isn't just one such case. YourDOST, a mental healthcare startup, used to receive around 50 queries regularly from people working in startups. However, during November and December 2016, the startup noted a sudden rise of cases to 150 queries daily.

The spike was seen around the same time when layoffs were steaming the ecosystem and the funding crunch was leading to forceful shutdowns, bringing in a reality-check. During the same period, companies like AskMe, Flipkart, Snapdeal, Yepme, EazyMeals laid off employees to cut costs.

But online counselling came to the rescue and helped individuals access instant help and resolve issues. A number of mental healthcare startups like YourDOST, ePsyclinic, Seraniti and Healtheminds have sprung up recently, which provide online counselling in formats like chat, audio and video along with one-to-one counselling sessions.

These mental healthcare startups mostly deal with youngsters in the age group of 20-35 who have set high goals in terms of relationships, career, social life and which is one of the causes for the stress.

Shipra, founder of ePsyclinic, said, "We get around 1,000 queries in a day and these range from startup founders to boards and academia stress, marital discord, psychological issues, phobias and addiction. Issues like stress of working parents, founders who see their business not working or employees who got laid off, make almost one-fifth of the daily queries."

Speaking to ET, a 35-year-old entrepreneur, who has been working on his startup for the past eight months, said, "I left my IT job to start my own business but it is a huge transition which we tend to forget. Starting up looks quite glamorous but we forget to count the long working hours and the additional responsibilities that one needs to handle."

Requesting anonymity, he said that even in the startup world, although entrepreneurs and employees are largely opting for online counselling, they refuse to openly talk about it and mental healthcare is still taboo even in the tech savvy world, just like the rest.

Janani Bala, a psychologist, said, "Not only job security, but lack of time, relationships and social life are common problems that startup employees and entrepreneurs face. With mounted pressure and expectations, many a time they fail to balance their work and relationships." Bala said that the queries from working parents have also doubled up who at times fail to devotedly attend to their kids due to their demanding jobs.

For instance, a 30-year-old woman, working with an ecommerce firm, said, "I am unable to concentrate on my work as I don't know what my kid is up to. When his board exams start, Icannot take leave with so much to be done in this small team. Am I a bad mom?" Richa Singh, CEO of YourDOST, said, "Based on our cumulative data, we find relationships, career and academics as the top three concerns." She points out that apart from established entrepreneurs or employees, many second and third-year college students, who aspire to become entrepreneurs, also avail these counselling services as they find no other relevant guidance.

Dr Shyam Bhat, founder of Seraniti, said, "Research shows that online video chat-based therapy is as effective as face-to-face therapy. In this capitalistic society, stress has become a part and parcel of lives. Today , everyone is driven, ambitious, careerist and people tend to derive their selfworth from material success and the pursuit of fame, money or power.Along with this, the rise of technology and social media has made it difficult for people to build and nurture authentic relationships. One cannot be a good leader or entrepreneur if not mentally fit."